Thursday, February 17, 2011

My husband and I have been working on our stockpile for a few months now, and we have a healthy supply of cereal, poptarts, oatmeal, boxed potatoes, soup and other canned goods, TP, paper towels, personal care items, and pain relievers. Our intention all along was to buy when things are cheap and stockpile so that we don't ever have to pay full price for these items. Plans changed!

We started looking for a house last month, and we finally found one that we like. We put a cash offer in on this foreclosed home, and we are currently waiting on a response from the bank to see if it's been accepted. In the meantime, our cash offer, if accepted will completely drain our bank accounts. We're talking DRAIN. We made the biggest offer possible, hoping that it will be reasonable for the bank to accept, even though it is still signifigantly below the list price. We shall see!

The downside of paying cash is that we will be BROKE if this offer is accepted. The upside is that we will own our own house free and clear and not have a mortgage payment to worry about. Since there will be no mortgage or rent to pay, it shouldn't take long for us to rebuild our savings and be able to fix up the house a bit. But what if something happens in the meantime? What if the car breaks down? Yikes. Pretty scary stuff! In the long run, it will definitely be beneficial to our family's financial well being to live mortgage-free....but what about in the meantime?

So, right now we wait for news on our offer. We jump a bit every time the phone rings, and we eat out of our stockpile, saving every penny possible for the closing costs that we might have to be paying very soon. We eat cereal, poptarts, boxed potatoes and soup, and we're loving every minute of it!

Monday, February 14, 2011

I entered my baby in a contest to win a new all-custom hand made cloth diaper from Doodle Dypes. Please click the link below and "like" Elena's picture to vote for us. While cloth diapering is great for a frugal family, these custom made diapers are not! They are a luxury, and diapers like the one Elena is wearing in this picture run around $25-$30 each. We splurge for super-cute diapers every once in awhile, but winning a free one is even better! Even with a diaper stash of all handmade custom diapers it will still be much cheaper than buying disposables for 2 years!

Doodle Dypes is the only place that we buy custom diapers for Elena. She has great customer service, super cute prints to choose from, and they work wonderfully! Many of the "boutique" diapers are cute as a button, but leak everywhere. Doodle Dypes has the best of both worlds!

If you have a Meijer store near you, and you haven't signed up for M-Perks yet, hurry on over here to sign up!

There are tons of great coupons up right now, but the best is a coupon for a free loaf of Meijer brand bread. Can't beat free!

M-Perks are digital coupons that you can use by logging into the M-Perks website, "clipping" the coupons you're interested in, and then using them at the checkout line. Your M-Perks account is tied to your cell phone number. You log into the website with your cell phone number, and then you enter your cell phone number at the checkout touchpad to apply your coupons to the order. Viola! Instant paper-less coupons! Can't beat that! :)

Monday, February 7, 2011

My apologies for hot having many posts the past few days. We were hit by the "big one" (snowstorm that is) and we were busy stocking up, cleaning up, and staying warm! We were also hit by another "big one", but this one seemed to be some sort of viral illness. I was sick Wednesday-Thursday, the baby wasn't feeling well Thursday-Friday, Alex was sick Saturday, Nolan was sick Saturday-Sunday and Jason got sick Sunday and is still sick in bed right now.

We didn't stick to our menu plan very well because of everyone being queasy, so no menu plan this monday. We need to clean out the fridge of leftovers and it will pretty much be a free for all with everyone eating whatever doesn't make them feel sick!